Start as you mean to go on

You’ve got your sleeves rolled up – you’re ready for your fall fundraising. You and roughly 161,000 other charities and non-profits in Canada. And you – and 161,000 other compelling, inspiring causes are also seeking new donors for your movement. Today, a few friendly reminders from your Agents of Good about donor acquisition that puts [...]

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File under “fun”

A while ago I was sitting around thinking about all the cool twitter apps we SHOULD have because they would be quite handy… I’d also like to give @javaj9 and @unmarketing a bit of credit for the inspiration… Feel free to add your into the comments… SweetTweets: shows you your most popular tweets of all [...]

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Lang Chngs. <3 & actn r 4 evah

By the time we met…the times had already changed – Arcade Fire, We Used To Wait My daughter Sadie spent a few precious minutes (as long as she ever sits still) on the lap of her great grandfather recently. They shared their love of the natural world looking at the bright orange Oriole and the [...]

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My friend Barack

Barack Obama is my friend. On Facebook. Me and 21 million (almost 22 million) of his closest friends received this post in our feed this week: Rather than setting a goal of millions of dollars for this campaign’s first big deadline on Thursday, we’re setting a goal of 450,000 grassroots donors. So far, 404,954 people [...]

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Guest Post: Twitter can do your organization more harm than good

The Agents are pumped to have a guest post for you from our colleague/fellow agitator/total Agent of Good Emma Lewzey with a Special Ops briefing on some undercover work she just completed on Twitter. Enjoy! And you rule Emma! I came to Twitter last year with a fairly singled minded mission – to learn the [...]

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Channel vs Campaign

“Direct mail is dead.” “Social media is going to change the world.” “Online is the only way to go.” “Our donors don’t give to mail.” “Telemarketing doesn’t work.” “No one watches DRTV.” After a few meetings this week and a bunch of reading, I am astounded at how much attention is given to specific channels [...]

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#afpcongress: By the hashtags, scribbles, photos and vids

Here are the highlights from our scribbled notes and tweets from Congress. We heartily encourage all fundraisers to check out the #afpcongress hashtag to review the highlights from all tweeps in attendance. Scribbles: Wendy Mesley: “Trust is not being given to institutions but to individuals.” Sean Triner (@seantriner) on “witnessing”. This is brilliant. Sean insists [...]

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#hashtags

I’ve spoken about the value of using a tool like twitter for professional growth. And hopefully if you are using it, you have been using #hashtags to follow certain conversations or events. If not, I quickly show you how and why you should be! I failed to mention there is a great tool called Tweetchat. [...]

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Don’t Think About Your Fundraising

This fall, don’t think about your fundraising. Seriously. I hear you already. -         “But Jen, we raise most of our money in fall and early winter.” -         “But, but Jen, we always do our donor acquisition in the fall.” -         “But, but, but Jen, ARE YOU CRAZY!?” This fall, don’t think about your revenue target. [...]

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Pop quiz, hotshot…

What starts with “s”, ends with “n” and can immediately improve your fundraising results and your donor/prospect/community engagement? Nope, it’s not seclusion. Or seduction, secretion, sexualisation, sanitization, sentimentialization, septuagenarian or sesquipedalian. Gold star for anyone who got it. Segmentation. Seriously – I’m starting to wonder whether some charities think the $70,000 database whirring away in [...]

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